


Is it still out there?

by xxhhunter



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Alternative Universe - Modern, Geralt exasperatedly calling Jaskier ‘Julian’, Geralt is still a Witcher, I go back and forward between calling him Jaskier and Dandelion without a care in the world, Jaskier manages to be both helpful and unhelpful at the same time, M/M, Modern AU, they travel together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:02:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23128987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxhhunter/pseuds/xxhhunter
Summary: Geralt and Jaskier park in the woods to wait for a monster and Jaskier has to navigate the darkness to provide some help to his struggling witcher.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 9
Kudos: 109





	Is it still out there?

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at 5am

They had been laying on the back of the car for hours now, parked in the deep part of the woods, close enough that they could still hear it if a truck passed on the highway, but far enough that the darkness was almost blinding. 

Jaskier had been rolling around in their sole sleeping bag like a restless ant. Geralt had watched him roll this and that way, grab his phone for a bit, let it go, turn on his stomach, grab his phone again, chuckle at things on twitter for another hour or so, only to let go of his phone again and start squinting in Geralt’s general direction, trying to make any sense of the shades and shadows in the back of their car.  
“Geralt?” He whispered, only to recoil when the witcher hushed him. He had told the musician this was like fishing, kind of, and silence was a big part of it. 

“Great, you’re awake.” The other answered instead, though in a lower voice. “I’m close to dying of boredom in here. Are you _sure_ this is the place?”

He felt tempted not to answer, just sush him once more or plainly ignore the other, but he had started to wonder the exact same thing, searching out the window for any shape or form, his eyes adjusted to the low light.  
“It’s where the shop clerk told us he had seen it.”

Granted, the shop clerk was also an overworked twenty year old who hadn’t really wanted to _talk_ about it and was more or less extremely uncomfortable having to answer all the ‘weird questions’ monster hunting usually entailed. Still, he had been very specific about the place, though they hadn’t been sure about the ‘when’ and the ‘what’ had attacked him. The thing had jumped out of the woods in this point of the highway, and so here was where it should be hunting, unless other unknown circumstances had driven it somewhere else. 

“Yeah, well, he did seem pretty sure about it, but he was also very scared, Geralt. Maybe he got confused, or maybe it wasn’t even a ‘thing’ at all, maybe it was just a bear or a mountain lion, or, you know, some other equally dangerous but quite _not_ our lane of-“  
“Shh, Jaskier.”  
“Rude! I’m just—“  
Geralt moved in a flash, over Jaskier before he blinked, one gloved hand firmly covering his mouth as his blue eyes widened in the dark, grabbing at Geralt’s wrists and immediately shutting up. 

Outside, the leaves on the floor cracked under feet. The steps - six at _least,_ Geralt counted in his head; approached slowly, in a casual stroll, bumping into trees here and there and breathing loudly as if it couldn’t quite close its maw. Too many teeth? Geralt had no idea what it could be. Maybe it was injured, maybe it was mutated, in these days, you could never know. The amount of pollution and shit everywhere were making the monsters bigger and more disgusting by the day. 

Dandelion was shaking underneath him, he could probably hear it too, now that the thing was so close to the car, but he remained blissfully quiet. The witcher made a gesture for him to stay like that, but it remained indistinguishable in the cover of the night, and he resolved to just slowly let go of Jaskier’s mouth to get a chance to look outside and make a plan. Maybe something better than just listening to the thing sniff around their camp until it found and ate them. 

A bump to the car made Geralt aware of how close the thing had gotten. Jaskier yelped, and immediately covered his own mouth with both hands, eyes big and searching, trying to make ups or downs of any moving silhouettes. Another bump, and they were thrown to the side. Geralt’s bag fell from one of the card boxes and made a loud noise, that was answered immediately with a snarl and a loud blood-curdling scream outside. Another bump, harder, and the car actually moved with it to the left, making Geralt very aware that he had to get out swinging, and fast. 

“Stay in the car.” He whispered to Jaskier, the violent moving and being thrown around had ended with both of them tangled together again. “Don’t make a noise, I think it’s blind, or at least doesn’t rely much on vision.”  
“In this light, who would?” Jaskier retorted, unhelpful. “Not everyone can see in the dark!”

The witcher pushed up from him and made sure to push Jaskier back down when he started to sit up with him. “Stay.” He ordered, and his chest felt a bit less tight when he saw the other nod slightly. “I’ll go.”

Another bump to the car, then scratching and hitting, making the jeep move this and that way as Geralt pulled out his silver blade, waiting for the right moment to get the back door open and go start some shit. One... two... three! He kicked the door to open it violently and hopped off, leaving Jaskier alone inside. 

The sounds of battle were insistent and loud in the silence of the woods. Jaskier scraped his knee trying to move quicker to a window, to see anything, but it was darker than it had ever been outside, even the moon not offering any light, thin and frail and hiding behind heavy clouds as she was. The bard cursed as something wet hit the window he had been looking through, leaving a trail of a goopy substance that he prayed wasn’t Geralt’s. The sound of slicing continued, so did the yells and the sounds of struggle, the spine chilling screams of the creature, whatever the fuck it was, fighting for its life. 

Jaskier thought it could be rather poetic, to think about it as a monster just trying to survive, but at this particular moment he didn’t feel exactly inclined towards lyricism or artistic expression. Not when he could feel his witcher being banged against the side of the car and giving a short heavy exhale as the air left his lungs. There was something – a paw?? A rope?? A tentacle?? What the fuck was that? Around his neck, and from the movement of the shadow Jaskier could only gather that Geralt was struggling against this thing. That and the fact that he absolutely needed to do something about it _right now._  
His hands started grabbing blindly through the scattered things inside the car. In the dark he managed to find a shoe, a mug that had previously been filled with water, a crossword magazine (wet) and his phone (not wet, thankfully). 

His eyes squinted as he tried to figure out which side was the screen on, and the car shook when the beast outside slammed Geralt onto it again. 

Aha! There! He pressed his thumb to unlock it and the screen lit up in the dull light he had set it to, the thing outside faltered in its movements and Geralt used the opportunity to finally set himself free. The creature started banging on the car’s roof, maybe angered by the distraction. But now Jaskier could finally see what was going on around himself. 

The inside of the car was, to say the least, a mess. The box with their clothes had been turned upside down and his favorite shirt was currently planted very firmly inside the very big puddle the water mug had caused in that part of the floor.  
Geralt’s gym bag was open, his big torch had a dent in the front, but seemed otherwise unharmed, his cheap compass looked much worse, though, but Jaskier didn’t lose any time crying for the piece of plastic that probably didn’t even work all that well. He was already connecting the dots in his head, chanting the words ‘be helpful’ over and over, until the banging over his head started to crumple the car’s ceiling. Then he started chanting ‘oh fuck’s instead. 

“Jaskier!!” Geralt was crying out for him somewhere, the sound of his slicing and hacking was still happening, but the thing seemed to be now laser-focused on the musician and the car, he tried to move his phone around again, to try and find Geralt outside in the dark. But as his phone scanned the windows it found round and pale eyes staring inside instead. 

He screamed, the creature screamed, and the phone was dropped screen-down somewhere, throwing Jaskier back into the dark. And then, before panic could properly set in, he figured out.  
The light. It was as Geralt had suspected after all, it was either blind or had sensitive eyes, eyes that didn’t agree very much with bright lights on its face. Reaching blindly for Geralt’s flashlight he tried not to dwell on the sounds of effort coming from outside, kicking the backdoor open to get out and help, despite the way his heart felt like it could just fall out of his mouth any second now. His hands were trembling on the light’s switch when he realized he was wet , and it was raining. All the sounds around him muffled by the orchestra of droplets hitting everything on their way down. 

“Geralt!” He yelled, because he needed something, a direction, a north, to know where he should be even aiming that blasted thing. His answer, of course, was having his feet pulled from under himself, and if he hit his head on the floor, well, he wasn’t going to tell Geralt. For some kind of miracle the flashlight was still in his hand as he lost his balance and his ears ringed, and he turned it on as fast as he could, eyes widening in fear as he saw how close the fucking beast had been. But he couldn’t deny the wave of vindictive adrenaline he felt inside once it recoiled screaming, covering its eyes with its big, weird hands, twisting in pain. 

Geralt, (and oh! There he was!) didn’t miss the chance. He grabbed the thing from behind, by the neck, and pressed his sword straight to its throat, pulling backwards with a grunt. His hair was wild, his eyes widened and pupils blown out - though Jaskier could admit this last one might be the flashlight’s fault. And he growled, feral and vicious, mounting the thing’s spine and pulling his sword back with a yell of effort. And Dandelion watched in awe as the sword, that he couldn’t be more certain was as sharp as it could be, struggled to piece the monster’s thick skin, slowly hacking into its throat as it trashed and fought it with all its might. 

It didn’t help that Jaskier still had his flashlight bright and strong pointed its way, blinding it and hurting it and making fighting back an even bigger struggle. With another yell from Geralt, the thing’s head was cut clear off, and they both fell together to the ground, though only the witcher stood up afterwards. 

“Geralt!” Jaskier got his voice back, lowering the light so he could get closer, stopping short from getting his nice shoes into the growing pool of blood on the floor. “Are you alright?? Did you see that thing? What _was_ it??”

Geralt looked at him like he was either insane and fearless, maybe both, breathing out in labored pants as the biggest chunks of gore were wiped away with the rain. 

“I told you to stay in the car-“ he glared, worried sick, as Jaskier knew well. 

“I’d hardly concern myself, it’s just a little water, hardly a storm-“

_”Julian.”_

Jaskier dropped it, letting Geralt step closer himself before the musician could sigh, his free hand moving to the other’s face, making sure his witcher was still in one piece.  
“I’m _fine.”_ he promised “You?”  
“Hmm.” Geralt nodded while leaning quietly onto the other’s hand, eyes dropping slightly.  
“Let’s get the hell out of here and back to the motel.” He suggested, rubbing a thumb over his cheek.  
“Hm.”  
“I don’t know about you but I definitely need a bath. And something to drink. And I’m probably sleeping with some lights on tonight.” He chuckled, watching as Geralt reached to get the flashlight from him, going to assess the state of the car as Jaskier just went around it to cram himself into the passenger side and try not to shiver too much from his wet clothes clinging to his skin. 

When Geralt got into the car, after putting a bag of ‘something’ in the back that Dandelion just simply didn’t ask about or acknowledge at all, he put himself behind the wheel and turned the ignition on with a sigh.  
“You’re the bravest person I know.” He admitted, feeling the newly formed bruises in his neck as he spoke. “Nothing has ever scared me more than that.”

Then he heard Jaskier laugh. As if it was all funny. As if Geralt hadn’t felt his heart _stop_ when he saw that thing going at the musician. On the contrary, he didn’t seem to care _or_ partake in the witcher’s inner turmoil, taking it instead as an invitation to lean over the gear stick and plant a kiss on his face.  
“Another job well done.” Jaskier told him, settling back in his seat, shivering from the cold “Take us home, big boy. I know I say it quite often, but I’m _actually_ dying to get these clothes off this time”

And just like that, Geralt was driving out of the woods, back to the hotel and then, back on the road.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven’t written anything in many many years, tips and comments are more then welcome!


End file.
